Eph 4:1-3
“[1] I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, [2] with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; [3] endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” – English KJV
“[1]Παρακαλῶ οὖν ὑμᾶς ἐγὼ ὁ δέσμιος ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε, [2] μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης καὶ πρᾳότητος, μετὰ μακροθυμίας, ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων ἐν ἀγάπῃ, [3] σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης.” – Greek Text
“[1] Parakalo oun humas ego o desmios en kurio axios peripatesai tes kleseos es eklethete, [2] meta pases tapeinophrosunes kai prautetos, meta makrothumias, anechomenoi allelon en agape [3] spoudazontes terein ten enoteta tou pneumatos en to sundesmo tes eirenes;”– Greek Pronunciation
This Scripture holds an amazing amount of lessons for Christians as well as the church. Focusing on only one subject is very difficult because there is just so much going on in this Scripture. The best is to go through it step by step to try and unlock as much from this verse as we can…
“I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord…”
This is a strange and profound statement that Paul makes here. Paul wrote this while he was under arrest in Rome.
The world would say that Paul is a prisoner of the Roman authorities, however, this does not to bother Paul, who seems oblivious to the physical situation and rather declares himself a prisoner of the Lord.
Paul had a choice to look at his situation in one of two ways:
1) A Worldly View:
- This is the view people naturally have when encountering a situation.
- This view is centered on the person and their situation and environment.
- This view fluctuates and can change every time the situation changes.
- With this view joy is only temporary.
- This is usually a negative or even sometimes a false positive view.
- Most of the time this view is the opposite of the Godly View.
2) A Godly View:
- This view does not come naturally, but comes from God by immersing yourself in His presence. If we seek God with all our might this view becomes more dominant in our lives.
- This view is centered on God and the personal relationship the person has with Jesus.
- God is constant, so this view does not fluctuate as the situation changes, but stays the same.
- With this view joy is everlasting.
Paul chose to look at his situation from a Godly perspective. He ignored the fact that he was a prisoner to the Romans, but saw himself as a prisoner to God. Paul knew that God intended to use his seemingly bad situation for good and therefore he focused on the glory God had planned, rather than the dirty road which lead there.
Who’s prisoner are you?
This is an important question. Are we prisoners to the world and our circumstances, which change constantly, or are we prisoners of the Lord Jesus Christ? It is our choice and ours alone.
“I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation (calling) wherewith ye are called”
The phrase “walking worthy of the calling” gives the idea of living a life in such a way that it amounts to something and can serve as an example.
There are many examples we can use to illustrate this: A policeman that walks worthy of his calling is an example of the Law. He lives worthy of his profession. He doesn’t steal and he doesn’t cheat. He defends and upholds the Law.
In the same manner a Christian is suppose to uphold God’s law and live the way God wants them to live, while doing things God wants them to do.
Christians are called to be the bearers of the Gospel and worshippers of the Almighty God. The first 3 chapters of Ephesians tell us how God sees us in Christ in Heaven, while chapters 4 to 6 show how men should see us on earth.
Being a Christian is the greatest calling any person will ever have. We must therefore walk (to the absolute best of our abilities) as worthy as we possibly can. We must take pride in the opportunity we have to be representatives of Christ and understand the immense responsibility we carry.
This often means doing things that we do not like, for example: We are called to evangelize. Most people do not like the idea and try to make some sort of excuse, however, we need to understand that God did not suggest that we do it…God commanded us to do it! (Matt 28:19-20)
Other times it means to refrain from things we like in order to be a good example for others. For example, there are places Christians just should not go, certain books we just should not read, certain music we just should not listen to and certain movies we just should not watch.
The world has become very anti-Christian. Many people are out there, waiting for us to make mistakes so that they can point fingers and call us hypocrites. We must do our best to represent Christ in the worthiest manner we possibly can. Our actions and words can attract or repel potential Christians, so we must be very careful of what we do or say.
How can we walk worthy of the calling? This question is answered in verse 2:
“with all lowliness (humility), and meekness (gentleness), with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love”
In Greek the words lowliness and meekness are linked and associated with each other. The term lowliness or humility can be very confusing. The humility mentioned here is the Greek word “tapeinophrosune”, which means humility of mind or modesty. This is an attitude where we are not too good to serve others.
Some people have misunderstood this and believe this is saying that we must think less of ourselves than what we really are, but this is not the case. The reality is that we should not lower ourselves, but rather take ourselves out of the equation. Our own abilities does not matter, because through love we place others first. This supernatural attitude in believers has its source in our relationship with our Lord Jesus. Humility makes believers conscious of their own ‘nothingness’ and enables them to respect others more than themselves. (This allows Christians to lay down their life for their friends - John 15:13)
Longsuffering tells us that we are called to have “long-tempers”, rather than “short-tempers”. This is required in our daily life. We must practice this quality both in our trials as well as in our relationships with one another. We must be long-tempered and hold out as long as possible before giving in to temptation and sin. The longer we hold out, the easier the trial becomes because the enemy will eventually give up and try something else.
In our relationships with one another we are also called to have “long-tempers”, bearing one another in love. We must be patient with the faults and infirmities of others, for we are not perfect either and God is being patient with us...
Notice how many fruits of the Spirit are mentioned. It is important to understand that we can only be worthy of the calling if we have the Holy Spirit within us. These fruits do not come naturally and we must seek them through the Spirit. This also means that every single Christian has the ability to be a worthy representative of Christ.
“endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”
Preserving unity:
Preserving unity in the body of Christ is an entire study on its own and deserves to be done in great detail. Therefore we will only be touching on this subject to highlight the importance thereof.
The Greek word translated as “endeavoring” is “spoudazontes”. This can also be translated as “being diligent”, however this word also conveys the idea of hastening to do something with intense effort and motivation. This verb has an element of haste, urgency and even a sense of crisis to it. It suggest zealous concentration and diligent effort. It also tells us that we will encounter difficulty but gives us the understanding that a resolute determination can overcome that difficulty.
Unity within the body of Christ does not come naturally. Small differences in viewpoints and minor doctrine divide the churches around the world, however we must work zealously and with great effort to unite the body of Christ. It is a matter of urgency, the further apart the churches pull, the weaker the Christian defense against the devil becomes.
How can the mouth preach to the nations if there are no feet to carry it? We may be divided by minor doctrine, however, the major doctrines bind us together and can bring strong unity to the Christian churches.
Verse 1 tells us what we must do, verse 2 tells us how we must do it and verse 3 tells us why we must do it.
It is imperative that we follow the advice given to us in this Scripture to ensure the unity of the relationship between man and God, between people and between the various members of the body of Christ.
As Christians in a very anti-Christian world, we all need to focus on having a good measure of maturity, grace, humility, gentleness as well as forgiveness.
Jesus’ actions on earth is a great example of someone who was worthy of the calling. Everything this Scripture mentions leads to the conclusion that we must imitate Christ. We must live our lives like Jesus lived His. Here is a easy three step plan to help us:
1) Reach UP: Seek God in prayer, praise and worship, study and reading the Word.
2) Reach IN: Seek fellowship with one another. Family, friends and other people within the church have needs that we can help with (and we can be helped in return)
3) Reach OUT: The world is an unfriendly place and people need God more than they realize! We must reach out to the unsaved as well as to other members of the body of Christ in order to create and preserve unity.
Every church should have a vision. If a church wants to be worthy of the calling, that vision must in some way or another include the above three points. When these three points become the focus of the church and our individual lives we know that we are on the right track.
We are called to be holy and righteous (to the best of our ability), just as Jesus was. We must look at our lives and understand where we need to work on ourselves to become more holy and righteous.
Be honest and ask yourself: Am I doing everything I can to live my life the way Jesus wants me to? Am I worthy of my calling?
